WFL’s Anna Dorste says the project took about 4 months once the library partnered with New England Document Conservation Center, which took high quality photos of maps. The next step was figuring out where to host the digital files so that they would be accessible to the most people, and the library decided to go with Digital Commonwealth, a collaborative project between over 130 Massachusetts libraries and cultural heritage institutions.

“Our plans are to continue digitizing these maps in groups, continually adding to our map collection. We are always looking for opportunities to provide materials – not just maps! – online so that they are accessible to the Wellesley community and beyond,” says Dorste, who noted the digitization effort was a big team project within the library.